After the 1995-96 deer season, a man entered a white-tailed buck deer in the Texas Big Game Awards (TBGA). He was declared the winner in the “Typical Whitetail” category, meaning it had a symmetrical set of antlers with no extra antler points, called kickers. Whitetails with those abnormal points are entered in the “Non-typical” category. A hunting magazine assigned me to write about it. That later led to my story and/or photo being published over a dozen times, making it my most lucrative assignment, though not exactly as planned.
It was all baloney, or whatever synonym you care to use. And I fell for it. The alleged shooter told a credible story, but it was just that – a “story”. My photo of him standing proudly beside the mount with a long cigar sticking haughtily out of his mouth was seen by a man in Kansas who had originally found the antlers on a dead deer. He sold them to a Missouri man, who sold them to the hunter. The hunter was disqualified.
The TBGA is a partnership between the State of Texas and Texas Wildlife Association. Tampering with government records (the TBGA application) is a felony. The shooter was charged, ultimately pleaded guilty and was fined $5,000, $900 in restitution to TPWD, 120 hours of community service, and placed on five years deferred adjudication.
The second-place entrant in the TBGA, Kevin Reed, rightfully moved into first place, and the story got better. And now was true.
Reed had seen a large buck the season before but couldn’t get off a shot. He hunted it again during the ’95-’96 season, camping with three other hunters and his 11-year-old son, Jade. The night before the hunt, they did what makes hunting the mystical experience that non-hunters don’t understand. They built a campfire and told stories. Jade and another kid sat and listened to the adults as they passed the hunting tradition to the young’uns.
The next morning, Reed spotted the deer in dim light, but lost it as he raised the scoped rifle. Jade, seated next to him, pointed out where it was. Reed shot, and the buck fell out of sight in tall grass as the rifle recoiled. Jade directed him again to the fallen deer. His adolescent eyes had helped make the hunt a success. They had witnessed a good hunt, a clean kill, and an event that could also become a campfire legend. Someday, another generation of hunters might hear the tale on their first hunt, perhaps sitting around a campfire with the man whose once 11-year-old-eyes had made it possible years before when he was a young boy, himself.
Campfire talk and camp life are unsung treasures of hunting. There’s so much more to hunting than merely pulling the trigger and seeing an animal fall. Although campfires are the best possible venue for lifelong memories, a wood-burning fireplace or a kerosene lantern set the stage, too. Living the legend is really – and truly – what hunting is all about.
JJ
